Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to equipment for sanitizing bodies of water such as pools and spas. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for controlling chlorinators and pumps in a sanitization and filtering system for bodies of water.
Related Art
In the pool and spa field, it is important that water be adequately sanitized to prevent the growth of microorganisms, algae, etc. Adequate sanitization is important not only to protect the health and safety of bathers, but to also ensure proper water clarity in a pool or spa. A number of sanitization techniques have been implemented to sanitize pool/spa water, such as chemical additives (e.g., chlorine, bromine, etc.), introduction of ozone into pool/spa water, ultraviolet sanitization, etc.
Electrolytic cells (or, so-called “salt chlorinators”) represent one way of sanitizing a pool or spa. In this arrangement, an amount of salt (sodium chloride) is periodically added to pool or spa water (e.g., a few times per year), an electric charge is imparted on the electrolytic cell, and pool or spa water is pumped through the cell. Through electrolysis, the salt in the water is converted to free chlorine, which is subsequently pumped into the pool or spa to sanitize water. One advantage to this approach is a reduction in the amount of chemicals that need to periodically be added to pool or spa water, in contrast to conventional chemical chlorination techniques which require frequent addition of dry or liquid chemicals to the pool/spa (e.g., by way of powder, tablets, etc.) in order to sanitize same.
Conventional chlorinators often only attempt to display and allow setting of the chlorine feed rate taking place when a filter pump is running. The displays and settings of these conventional chlorinators typically do not change if the filter schedule is changed, even though the actual dosing of chlorine can be and is often dramatically impacted by the filter schedule. Because the codependence between the chlorine feed rate and the filter schedule is often not illustrated or managed by the conventional chlorinator controllers or system controllers, the chlorine output displayed to a user often misrepresents the chlorine output levels of the chlorinator to the user and can, in some instance, can affect the quality of the water being treated by the chlorinator.